This invention relates to the use of a signal being transmitted from tire pressure sensors wherein a signal is adjusted to have a frequency corrected for the speed of the vehicle. A control receives the signal and identifies characteristics in the signal to identify which tire has sent the signal.
Modern vehicles are being provided with more and more electronic diagnostic and sensing systems. In particular, tire pressure sensors are now incorporated into most modem vehicles. The tire pressure sensors typically send a wireless signal to a control. The signal will typically include a code, such that the control can identify to which tire the particular signal relates.
Such tire pressure monitoring systems require some way of initially identifying the code for each sensor and its associated tire with a control. Thus, means for “localization” are incorporated into tire pressure monitoring systems.
One proposed system looks at characteristics in the signal that would be distinct for each of the tire based sensor transmitters. As an example, due to the relative location of the receiver and the control and each of the sensors on each of the tires, there would be distinct “black spots” within the signal at which the receiver would not receive a portion of the signal. The pattern of black spots could thus be of value in identifying the location of the particular sensor sending the particular signal. A receiver could be programmed to expect a particular series of black spots at particular times, and identify which tire is reporting based upon those black spots. However, the speed of the vehicle would affect the expected timing of the black spots within the signal. Thus, the prior art discussed above is not a practical way of identifying the location of a sensor sending a particular transmission.